baldysblog.co.uk

Posts Tagged ‘Anglosphere’

We all like a clearly defined villain, someone we can all hate without fear of contradiction that we as individuals have made a mistake. There have been two stories in the past year running in the UK that have both these elements: MP’s Expenses and Banker’s Bonuses.

In both cases I believe that the “Perceived Wisdom”is totally wrong, worse a “cover up” and President Obama’s threats to limit American Banks in both size and scope, probably foolish and his message is more ‘politically populist’ than the sound of common sense. The reality behind both of these stories is something called complacency…

Read the rest of this entry »

I suppose with the year drawing to a close it would be obvious that there would be lots of “assessments” by journalists concerning Obama’s first year in Office and how the Hope he bought for change and a different approach has actually played out during that time.

Inevitably there will be many who start to wonder whether he will turn out to be a “One Term President”, my gut instinct is that it is far too early to say because often it is the unforeseen “events” which determine the fate of Presidents and Prime Ministers based upon how they react.

Read the rest of this entry »

An odd thing today, two drippy people trying to attack the Prince of Wales over his quite determined lobbying of Government Ministers on his pet interests by writing letters to them, frankly neither is worth reading, both write disconnected drivel but if you will, links as follows:

One Paul Richards,a professional Labour Lobbyist and very lightweight indeed: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6960833.ece

Andreas Whittam Smith who writes for the Independent, fuller in content by why did he write it ? http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/andreas-whittam-smith/andreas-whittam-smith-prince-charles-and-the-looming-constitutional-crisis-1844147.html

Read the rest of this entry »

Apparently the other day, a Labour Housing Minister addressing the Fabian Society said that the era in which all Britons can aspire to own their own home may be coming to an end. He suggested that Britain may be moving towards a European model, with renting on a roughly equal footing with buying.

He then said that home ownership had fallen from 71 per cent of households in 2003 to 68 per cent today, noting that this trend began in 2005, well before the recession. “I’m not sure that’s such a bad thing,” he said, what a prat ! I notice he neglected to mention the uncontrolled immigration during that same period.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/its-time-to-give-up-the-dream-of-home-ownership-says-minister-1838189.html

Read the rest of this entry »

Today Dominic Lawson wrote an interesting and amusing article in the Independent called “Europe will always be a foreign land for the British”. It was interesting in that he was ‘observing’ a situation rather than promoting such a view but it is worth looking at for the comments that came in the majority of which were rather rancid and well wide of the topic.

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/dominic-lawson/dominic-lawson-europe-will-always-be-a-foreign-land-for-the-british-1826457.html

Read the rest of this entry »

Although not my favourite Candidate for the US Presidency, the choice of the American electorate was Barack Obama and I admire his efforts over Healthcare Reform, he is right and I am sure he will be judged so over time. I personally don’t care too much for his style because to my mind he is far too laid back and often seems somewhat disconnected and right now over Afghanistan, this is very dangerous.

The biggest single problem currently is not whether the Americans send in more troops or just how many if they do, it is President Obama’s dithering over the matter and Karl W Eikenberry, a former General and now American Ambassador to Kabul, with his leaked communication advising against further reinforcements, really doesn’t help anyone whether they are in favour of getting troops out or, of hanging on in there. The advice given to parents about not arguing in front of the kids, comes to mind, the White House seems to be in total disarray.

Read the rest of this entry »

In today’s Independent, Matthew Norman wrote an article calling for us to seize the moment to demand a written constitution, I sometimes wonder where the Sam Hill we get these people from:

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/matthew-norman/matthew-norman-we-must-seize-the-moment-to-demand-a-written-constitution-1684493.html

No, this is not a golden moment to have a written constitution and neither is any other moment in time going forward, the very last thing this country needs is yet another device to impede change as it is required and on a consensual basis.

Read the rest of this entry »

As I watch on TV the highly varied “protester groups” demonstrating on the streets of London, I am reminded that today indeed is April Fools Day for the whole thing has the air of a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. What do Anarchists, Green Movement, Peaceniks, Old People who have lost their savings, people who have lost their jobs, people who blame the Bankers…have in common ?

What remedies would suit them all ? Is there a universal panacea ? The answer of course is no because most are just wanting to go back to how things were 18 months ago and the “usual protesters” are hacked off because the economic downturn has made them irrelevant. For them, its a bit like Hunt Saboteurs suddenly finding out that everyone has given up hunting with hounds – it’s bloody tough having both your job and raison d’etre taken away from you…

Read the rest of this entry »

In the 1688 Bill of Rights and later reinforced in the Act of Settlement in 1701, Catholics were positively discriminated against so that they could never marry into the Royal Family and become therefore Queen or Queen’s Consort and retain their religion and therefore an assumed “allegiance to Rome”.

The proposal is in a Private Members Bill launched by Liberal Democrat MP Evan Harris which as most do, will fail without Government support. However in terms of changing the current state of affairs, even as a Catholic, I oppose such changes and any modifications should be considered carefully and over time.

Read the rest of this entry »

As someone of Anglo Irish origins, the only surprise to me is that the death of two soldiers and a Catholic policeman, hasn’t happened before because whatever the “process”, violence is never far away, there are always “die-hard” Republicans and worse, their equivalent Unionists. These have their equivalents in Iraq in the Sunni and Shia communities.

Whilst some may question the reticence of Jerry Adams to speak out more forcefully on the events of these past few days particularly as Martin McGuinness has bravely done so, things are never that simple in Ireland, history both real and imagined, governs all.

Read the rest of this entry »